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One out of Five stars
Running time: 80 mins

Unfunny, badly thought out and occasionally downright offensive, this is an extremely poor effort, even by the standards of other Rob Schneider movies.

What's it all about?
Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Napoleon Dynamite Heder star as Gus, Richie and Clark, three losers who spent a lot of time on the benches as kids (the US equivalent to always being picked last for games).

When they rescue a kid (Max Prado as Nelson) from being bullied on the baseball field, Nelson's millionaire father (Jon Lovitz) is so grateful that he puts up the money for the three friends to form a three-man bully-thrashing league of their own and take on all the local bullies.

The Bad
Unsurprisingly, the biggest problem with this so-called comedy is that there isn't a single funny joke in it. (Robot butlers? Not funny). Basically, you know a gross-out comedy is in trouble when even its fart gags and vomit jokes aren't funny.

In addition, the script is so badly thought out, it's practically an insult. And as if that wasn't bad enough, a late-in-the-plot twist threatens to derail even the film's basic message (that bullying is bad), as well as destroying any sympathy we had for one of the main characters.

The Worst
Rob Schneider's likeable screen presence has seen him through some stinkers in the past but even his cute little puppy-dog face act can't save him here. The best you can say about Spade is that he's marginally less annoying than usual, but he's still pretty damn annoying.

Essentially, Jon Heder is the only real reason to see The Benchwarmers and that's only if you thought Napoleon Dynamite was the funniest comedy of the last ten years, since he pretty much reprises his comedy idiot routine from that film, only to less winning effect.

Worth seeing?
In a word, no. Rent the remake of The Bad News Bears instead and leave The Benchwarmers on the bench.